HENRY FROWDE, M.A. PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD Dom mina LONDON, EDINBURGH, AND NEW YORK 17 The Educational Systems of Great Britain and Ireland BY GRAHAM BALFOUR, M.A. OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS PREFACE IN this book I have tried to give a brief and fairly comprehensive account of general education in the United Kingdom during the nineteenth century. An impartial and even tedious catalogue of existing agencies seemed likely to be more effectual in indicating the present deficiencies and requirements of these islands than any more impassioned advocacy of my own or anybody else's views. The Introductory chapter was written last as a review of the sections, so that there has been no temptation to distort or even to emphasize any of the facts in order to illustrate the general views there suggested. On the other hand, the explanation of any passages or allusions in the Introduction which seem obscure will be found in the corresponding chapter of the book by reference to the Index. My materials have been drawn largely from the many and lengthy series of Departmental reports which deal with so much of the education of the country, but more especially from the blue-books of the numerous Commissions and Committees which from time to time have examined the abuses or |